A Week in Montenegro

Europe » Montenegro » Kotor » Kotor
September 14th 2012

Published: September 14th 2012

Day 4

The climb. Did I mention it was 1350 steps (not that I counted). We started fairly early to avoid the heat, and as always on our travels wore appropriate and sensible shoes. Not. As we walked up we were met by people walking down, generally people who had arrived early in the morning on one of the cruise boats. They all tried to give us encouragement, did we really look that unfit? A question I don’t really want to answer. The problem with walking up (as well as the climb) is that you want to look at the view, but the view is behind you. We stopped at various rest points, for the view of course, and admired. It really is beautiful. Everything has a clarity and the noise and bustle of the town below just disappears. We were lucky in that we didn’t have too many people to compete with on the way up, it would have been less impressive if it had been busy. Actually that’s the wrong word, perhaps I mean less of an impact. Of course that’s not to say there weren’t people about, and unfortunately the one family that we were climbing up with, they were a little behind us, were the family perfect. Dressed in white. Wearing hats. Impeccably turned out. Speaking English (American) and French. They must have been cruising around on the Clipper which had turned up overnight. It was a beautiful boat which we could see this clearly at our height. Our family perfect would have blended in beautifully on this boat. I hasten to add that there was no jealously, only true admiration of the fact that at the top of the climb I looked rumpled (I’m being kind to myself) and they looked pristine. It was worth it though, the town below looked compact, the boat looked huge and out of scale, the mountains enclosing the town looked solid, the water was blue – we had done it. We did the obligatory look around the pretty dull fort at the top, admired the views and started to walk down. Of course, on the way down you can see everything without straining your neck. And it’s easier. We exited via a different route (doubting that we were heading the right way as it was a little overgrown) and came across a little square (Trg od Salate) and had a restorative drink. Having had a little rest we had a further wander around Kotor and eventually found a restaurant to eat lunch.

After lunch we wandered aimlessly around and ended up leaving the town and walking along the water front. It was hot and the water was dappling along the shore, we walked along a promenade and eventually came to what looked like a student area. There were students walking around with text books and talking earnestly in the outside cafes – which were very chic on this stretch of the water. We decided to sit in one of the cafes and have a beer. The afternoon went by in a very relaxed manner and eventually we tore ourselves away and headed back to the apartment to have a rest before dinner.

We had booked dinner the day before on our explorations around town (before the dog attached itself to us). It was a restaurant called Galion, supposedly one of the best restaurants in town. It certainly looked it. It had a cavernous double height interior with an outside which rested on decking suspended over the water. We were seated outside on the water and proceeded to get very excited about the meal. The menu was lovely. I can’t remember what was on it, but it was lovely. I can’t remember the prices either, although they were obviously higher than in other restaurants, but this was our blow out meal so we didn’t really worry too much. Rather than going into too much detail of what we ate, I’ll merely say it was delicious and if you are in Kotor, it’s well worth a visit. They even bring out blankets when it gets a bit chilly, which is well worth taking advantage of as the restaurant has a fantastic view of the fortifications – which I think were being tested as we were there as sections kept being turned on and off and you could see people with torches flashing their lights as though they were signalling to smugglers on the water. Perhaps they were.

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